Is it a good idea to play a blind character?

Is it a good idea to play a blind character?
If so, how?

Depends on the game.

In anything gritty, probably not unless you've got a specific method of not being a burden on your group, since those systems tend to try and make it realistically punishing.

In something narrativist or high power it's probably fine, as you either have ways around it or its function as a narrative flaw will be repaid some other way and a non-simulation obsessed system won't fuck your character over completely because of it.

It's a standard fantasy game in 5th edition

Do it the way Daredevil does it. Matt's blindness has zero actual effect on him and actually gives him supersenses to boot. It's everyone else that's disabled by comparison.

Then it's a matter of the tone of the game and the preferences of the GM, since as far as I'm aware 5e doesn't have rules for disadvantages like that, at least not official ones.

If your GM is the hyper gritty sort, probably not unless you have some specific idea for getting around it, although magic can provide that.

If your GM is more okay with handwaving and cinematic stuff, fluffing a monk as a blind master or a wizard as being incapable seeing the physical world should be fine, mostly functioning as a minor flavour downside that adds something to a characters portrayal.

Any solution that ends with the character constantly suffering mechanical penalties is bad unless you for some reason really want to play someone who is crippled to the point of uselessness and can't contribute to the party, which most groups will probably not appreciate.

No.

Is it ok to treat a character as blind in a narrative only fashion, in 5th edition?

Depends on the tone of the game and the preference of the GM and the group. There's no objective reason you can't, but some groups won't want to.

>my character is blind
>but his superpower is that he can see

Blindness in 5e

A blinded creature can’t see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight.
Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature’s Attack rolls have disadvantage.

Apparently you can still read just fine. You don't need an ability check to be able to target creatures that aren't hiding, and many spells and abilities don't use attack rolls.

Pathfinder has an oracle that can be blind.
Pretty much this.

Also depends on if you can have other senses compensate for it, Shadowrun for example has astral perception and sonar implants.
Which make blindness a non problem.

Depends on the game and the way the system handles it.

Not really, no. As a GM, it makes my life so much fucking harder to describe surroundings to the group. It's like making sure the neighborhood vegan has enough to eat at your backyard barbeque every single time you assholes walk into a new room. As a player, it's annoying that I constantly have to suffer a loss of teamwork because of your character's flaw, because we simply can't act as a team in the same way when we have to constantly babysit you. It's just a bad idea all around, but if you're dead set on doing it then at least ask everyone at the table if they mind first.
>A blinded creature can’t see
>Apparently you can still read just fine
What?

Sure, just find a mechanical way to mitigate the blindness penalties.

Blind monks, the best thing since one-armed pirates

Did this once. Wore a blindfold the whole game. Never knew what I rolled, couldn't tell where on the character sheet I was writing things, couldn't see the map, etc. It was fucking fun

Savage worlds has ruled for being completely blind. you can still get a lot done.

No, never play Human or Drow. Humans disadvantage at night, Drow disadvantage in day light. Both exactly the same as being blinded by a spell.
>inb4 humans carry a torch
If you have a free hand in combat you're doing it wrong.

Play a warlock who has the darkness spell and the devil's eyes ability, and fluff it as dark being like light to you and vice-versa.

Take the lucky feat so every so often you get double-advantage instead of disadvantage.

Pact of the chain, and see through the eyes of your familiar.

>If you have a free hand in combat you're doing it wrong.
If there's no caster who can cast light, I keep an NPC in my employ who carries my torch.

Deckers/Riggers/Cyberzombies/Ghouls in Shadowrun either don't need or can't see. In the Storyteller systems there's a blind flaw you can take at the chargen or get later and a lot of stuff that lets you circumvent it. Play Miraluka or Force-sensitive in the Star Wars.
Specialize in the skills that don't require you to see, such as Perform (get bonuses for being blind, in fact), Diplomacy, Jurisprudence, Trade, Science. Get a companion, a pet, or, better, a familiar.

You don't think reading qualifies as an ability check that requires sight, you fuckwit?

Reading isn't an ability check, you fuckwit.

the rules don't specifically state that you can't read when blind.
So, RaW, blindness doesn't prevent you reading.
It's stupid, but that's what happens when you run entirely on RaW

Have a lantern on your helmet.

I don't know 5e very well, but in 3.pf there are race, feat and class selections that give access to other senses such as blindsense, tremmorsense and so on, which will allow the PC to 'see' in limited ways while blinded.
In 5e, I can see a custom feat that lets you 'see' through echolocation, granting the equivallent of blindsight, being OK if you talk to your GM.

play him as a comic relief character

I have wanted to play a blind warlock in 5th edition that uses his familiar to see. He would do everything in his ability to hide the fact that he was blind.

Go with the classics
>Pretends to be a bumbling old man
>Has a job as a simple masseuse
>But when shit hits the fan he is a man slayer

It specifically says you can't see. Reading without seeing something is rather a challenge.

Ask the DM if you can have something the Grimlock's Blind Senses:
>blindsight 30 ft., or 10 ft. while deafened (blind beyond this radius)
>You can't use your blindsight while deafened and unable to smell.
So it's a tradeoff rather than a straight nerf.

>Is it a good idea to play a blind character?
No

If you're playing 5th ed, these are the best options to not being a burden. Ask your DM if you can take a special feat for Blindsight. Otherwise go the familiar route.

Not technically blind, but fights the same way as Murdock for the most part.

No go fuck yourself. unless you have a power that makes you functionally not blind, go fuck yourself

>automatically fails any ability check that requires sight.

that's not even RaW, manlit

go read